Latest news with #lawsuit
The Independent
25 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Colorado's AG sues deputy, saying he illegally shared information with immigration agents
Colorado's Democratic attorney general on Tuesday sued a sheriff's deputy for allegedly helping federal immigration agents find and arrest a college student who had an expired visa. Attorney General Phil Weiser also disclosed that his office is investigating whether other law enforcement officers on a regional drug task force the deputy worked on have been sharing information to help federal agents make immigration arrests in violation of state law limiting cooperation in immigration enforcement. The federal government has sued Colorado over such laws. On June 5, Mesa County Deputy Alexander Zwinck allegedly shared the driver's license, vehicle registration and insurance information of the 19-year-old nursing student in a Signal chat used by task force members, according to the lawsuit. The task force includes officers who work for federal Homeland Security Investigations, which can enforce immigration laws, the lawsuit said. After federal immigration officers told him in the chat that the student did not have a criminal history but had an expired visa, Zwinck allegedly provided them with their location and told her to wait with him in his patrol car for about five minutes, asking about her accent and where she was born. He let her go with a warning and gave federal agents a description of her vehicle and told her which direction she was headed so they could arrest her, the lawsuit said. When Zwinck was told of the arrest, the lawsuit said he congratulated the federal agents, saying 'rgr, nice work.' The following day, one federal immigration agent praised Zwinck's work in the chat, saying he should be named 'interdictor of the year" for the removal division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Zwinck is also accused of violating the law again on June 10 by providing immigration officers with the photo of the license of another driver who had overstayed his visa, information about the person's vehicle and directions to help them arrest the driver. After being told that immigration officers 'would want him', Zwinck replied that 'We better get some bitchin (sic) Christmas baskets from you guys', the lawsuit said. The Mesa County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spokesperson Molly Casey said the office is about a week away from finishing its internal investigation into the student's traffic stop and plans to issue a statement after it is finished. A working telephone number could not be found for Zwinck, who was placed on paid leave during the sheriff's office's investigation. Casey declined to provide the name of an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf. The sheriff's office previously announced that all its employees have been removed from the Signal group chat. Weiser said he was acting under a new state law that bars employees of local governments from sharing identifying information about people with federal immigration officials, a recent expansion of state laws limiting cooperation in immigration cases. Previously, the ban on sharing personal identifying information only applied to state agencies, but state lawmakers voted to expand that to local government agencies earlier this year. ' One of our goals in enforcing this law is to make clear that this law is not optional. This is a requirement and it's one that we take seriously,' he said. The law allows violators to be fined but Weiser's lawsuit only seeks a judge's order declaring that Zwinck's actions violated the law and barring him from such actions in the future.
Associated Press
25 minutes ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Colorado's AG sues deputy, saying he illegally shared information with immigration agents
DENVER (AP) — Colorado's Democratic attorney general on Tuesday sued a sheriff's deputy for allegedly helping federal immigration agents find and arrest a college student who had an expired visa. Attorney General Phil Weiser also disclosed that his office is investigating whether other law enforcement officers on a regional drug task force the deputy worked on have been sharing information to help federal agents make immigration arrests in violation of state law limiting cooperation in immigration enforcement. The federal government has sued Colorado over such laws. On June 5, Mesa County Deputy Alexander Zwinck allegedly shared the driver's license, vehicle registration and insurance information of the 19-year-old nursing student in a Signal chat used by task force members, according to the lawsuit. The task force includes officers who work for federal Homeland Security Investigations, which can enforce immigration laws, the lawsuit said. After federal immigration officers told him in the chat that the student did not have a criminal history but had an expired visa, Zwinck allegedly provided them with their location and told her to wait with him in his patrol car for about five minutes, asking about her accent and where she was born. He let her go with a warning and gave federal agents a description of her vehicle and told her which direction she was headed so they could arrest her, the lawsuit said. When Zwinck was told of the arrest, the lawsuit said he congratulated the federal agents, saying 'rgr, nice work.' The following day, one federal immigration agent praised Zwinck's work in the chat, saying he should be named 'interdictor of the year' for the removal division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Zwinck is also accused of violating the law again on June 10 by providing immigration officers with the photo of the license of another driver who had overstayed his visa, information about the person's vehicle and directions to help them arrest the driver. After being told that immigration officers 'would want him', Zwinck replied that 'We better get some bitchin (sic) Christmas baskets from you guys', the lawsuit said. The Mesa County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spokesperson Molly Casey said the office is about a week away from finishing its internal investigation into the student's traffic stop and plans to issue a statement after it is finished. A working telephone number could not be found for Zwinck, who was placed on paid leave during the sheriff's office's investigation. Casey declined to provide the name of an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf. The sheriff's office previously announced that all its employees have been removed from the Signal group chat. Weiser said he was acting under a new state law that bars employees of local governments from sharing identifying information about people with federal immigration officials, a recent expansion of state laws limiting cooperation in immigration cases. Previously, the ban on sharing personal identifying information only applied to state agencies, but state lawmakers voted to expand that to local government agencies earlier this year. 'One of our goals in enforcing this law is to make clear that this law is not optional. This is a requirement and it's one that we take seriously,' he said. The law allows violators to be fined but Weiser's lawsuit only seeks a judge's order declaring that Zwinck's actions violated the law and barring him from such actions in the future.
Al Arabiya
26 minutes ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Colorado's AG sues deputy, saying he illegally shared information with immigration agents
DENVER (AP) – Colorado's Democratic Attorney General on Tuesday sued a sheriff's deputy for allegedly helping federal immigration agents find and arrest a college student who had an expired visa. Attorney General Phil Weiser also disclosed that his office is investigating whether other law enforcement officers on a regional drug task force the deputy worked on have been sharing information to help federal agents make immigration arrests in violation of state law limiting cooperation in immigration enforcement. The federal government has sued Colorado over such laws. On June 5, Mesa County Deputy Alexander Zwinck allegedly shared the driver's license, vehicle registration, and insurance information of the 19-year-old nursing student in a Signal chat used by task force members, according to the lawsuit. The task force includes officers who work for federal Homeland Security Investigations, which can enforce immigration laws, the lawsuit said. After federal immigration officers told him in the chat that the student did not have a criminal history but had an expired visa, Zwinck allegedly provided them with their location and told her to wait with him in his patrol car for about five minutes, asking about her accent and where she was born. He let her go with a warning and gave federal agents a description of her vehicle and told her which direction she was headed so they could arrest her, the lawsuit said. When Zwinck was told of the arrest, the lawsuit said he congratulated the federal agents, saying, 'rgr nice work.' The following day, one federal immigration agent praised Zwinck's work in the chat, saying he should be named 'interdictor of the year for the removal division of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.' Zwinck is also accused of violating the law again on June 10 by providing immigration officers with the photo of the license of another driver who had overstayed his visa, information about the person's vehicle, and directions to help them arrest the driver. After being told that immigration officers would 'want him,' Zwinck replied that 'We better get some bitchin (sic) Christmas baskets from you guys,' the lawsuit said. The Mesa County Sheriff's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Spokesperson Molly Casey said the office is about a week away from finishing its internal investigation into the student's traffic stop and plans to issue a statement after it is finished. A working telephone number could not be found for Zwinck, who was placed on paid leave during the sheriff's office's investigation. Casey declined to provide the name of an attorney who might be able to speak on his behalf. The sheriff's office previously announced that all its employees have been removed from the Signal group chat. Weiser said he was acting under a new state law that bars employees of local governments from sharing identifying information about people with federal immigration officials – a recent expansion of state laws limiting cooperation in immigration cases. Previously, the ban on sharing personal identifying information only applied to state agencies, but state lawmakers voted to expand that to local government agencies earlier this year. 'One of our goals in enforcing this law is to make clear that this law is not optional. This is a requirement, and it's one that we take seriously,' he said. The law allows violators to be fined, but Weiser's lawsuit only seeks a judge's order declaring that Zwinck's actions violated the law and barring him from such actions in the future.
CNN
an hour ago
- Health
- CNN
Anti-vaccine group that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. founded files suit against him over vaccine safety task force
A nonprofit anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing him, in his capacity as secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, for failing to establish a task force to promote the development of safer childhood vaccines. 'Our first priority will ALWAYS be children's health. Sec. Kennedy has FAILED 'to establish a task force dedicated to making childhood vaccines safer, as mandated by federal law,' so we WILL be holding him accountable,' Children's Health Defense said Tuesday in a post on X. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 directs the HHS secretary to establish a task force consisting of the director of the National Institutes of Health, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The NIH director is designated as chair. According to an article posted Monday on Children's Health Defense's news site, in the years since the act was passed, no HHS secretary – including Kennedy – has ever reported to Congress on steps taken to make vaccines safer. 'This is part of the 1986 act itself,' Children's Health Defense CEO Mary Holland said in the article. 'That no secretary has done so since the passage of this law is a blow to the rule of law. I hope and trust that the current secretary will fulfill his obligation to Congress's mandate.' The organization says attorney Ray Flores, its senior outside counsel, filed the lawsuit on its behalf. Kennedy filed a similar case in 2018 after a Freedom of Information Act request failed to produce any of the reports that are supposed to be filed under the Act. HHS has not responded to CNN's request for comment about the new lawsuit. 'Even if it does not include the people in the [National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act], there are multiple federal committees that routinely look at vaccine safety and how to make vaccines safer. It's something that gets a lot of attention,' Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, told CNN in an email. 'This looks performative, and it may give Kennedy cover for convening this task force that he may already want to convene. It may well be collusion,' she wrote. 'To me, this looks like a way to give political cover to something the Secretary may want to do anyway (and can do without anything). The government has answers to this lawsuit, but may not want to.'
New York Times
an hour ago
- Business
- New York Times
Federal Prosecutors Close Inquiry Into Co-Founder of Kraken Crypto Exchange
The Justice Department said it recently ended a criminal investigation into Jesse Powell, a co-founder of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, according to court documents. In 2023, the F.B.I. searched Mr. Powell's home in Los Angeles as part of an investigation into claims that he had illicitly gained access to and interfered with the online accounts of Verge Center for the Arts, a Sacramento-based nonprofit. Mr. Powell started Verge in 2007, and its leadership removed him from the board of directors in 2022, citing violations of the organization's 'guiding principles.' Mr. Powell later sued Verge for defamation and fraud. In a letter last month from the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of California to Mr. Powell's representatives, which was reviewed by The New York Times, the U.S. attorney said 'an appropriately authorized investigation' was opened into 'allegations of criminal conduct,' and the investigation was closed in April. The U.S. attorney's office said it reserved the right to reopen the inquiry, according to the letter. A representative for the U.S. attorney's office did not return a request for comment. In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Powell called the raid on his home 'devastating both personally and professionally' and vowed to continue his lawsuit against Verge. 'I will continue to pursue the appropriate legal remedies against those who created this disaster by making false statements to law enforcement,' he said. Phillip Cunningham, a lawyer for Verge, declined to comment. Mr. Powell helped build Kraken into one of the largest U.S. crypto exchanges. But he stepped down as chief executive in 2022 after The Times reported on how he incited debates about race and gender in the workplace. Shortly after, Verge tried to cut ties with its founder. After Mr. Powell's dismissal, Verge accused him of blocking employees from using the organization's website, emails and internal messaging system, and accessing confidential information stored in those accounts, according to a 2022 letter from Mr. Cunningham to Kraken. Months later, the F.B.I. raided Mr. Powell's home. David Yaffe-Bellany contributed reporting from New York.
